Three Days in San Antonio - Day 1 – Sussing out the Missions
/Staying in a hotel for more than a night seems quite a luxury sometimes when you’ve been traveling cross-country. Usually, we’re up, packed and out by 8am... on the road with a few activities planned throughout the day. For three days, however, we planned to stay put in San Antonio, explore this colorful city, and enjoy its Spanish culture. Remnants of the city’s colonial Spanish roots are everywhere, nowhere more prominent than at its historic missions.
The San Antonio Missions were each located a few blocks (or more) along the River Walk.
There are five Franciscan missions altogether along this trail… four comprise part of the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park administered by the National Park Service (NPS) since 1978. Additionally, there’s Mission San Antonio de Valero, more commonly known as ‘the Alamo’ which is managed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Interesting to note, that although the missions fall under the auspices of the NPS, worship is still active at the missions themselves with Masses occurring regularly under the direction of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
The paved, multi-use Mission Trail, aka the River Walk, follows the meandering path of the San Antonio River from downtown San Antonio south to Mission Espada, about 10 miles south. The missions are located roughly 2.5 miles apart which makes walking or biking the path between them pretty easy. We decided we’d drive the route first to suss it out and then do a combination of walking and riding to avoid having to walk in both directions. We located conveniently located BCycle stations at each mission which greatly facilitated our plan.
Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo is home to the NPS’s main visitor center.
The NPS main visitor center, located at Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, was founded in 1720. It’s an open-air museum, that encourages wandering and exploring. The walled compound is large and plaza-like with ‘apartments’ on three sides which originally housed the Indian converts to Catholicism. The dominant feature is, of course, the mission church itself. Dubbed ‘the Queen of Missions’ for its beauty, construction of the limestone church, designed and built in a Spanish colonial Baroque architectural style, was begun in 1768. The mission flourished until 1824 when Mexican authorities secularized it and it fell into ruin. Subsequent extensive preservation and restoration efforts have safeguarded its living heritage and culture.
Graceful, arched walkways provide access to the convento… a residence for the missionaries and their visitors.
According to the NPS brochure, ‘the Rose Window is known as the premier example of Spanish Colonial ornamentation in the United States.” It’s also a testament to the skill of the Spanish carpenter/surveyor, Pedro Huizar who created it. Legend has it that he carved the famous window as a monument to his sweetheart, Rosa, who was lost at sea on her transit from Spain. The church embraced it as a tribute to Santa Rosa de Lima, the first saint of the New World. I think I prefer the romantic version.
The altar at the church of San José y San Miguel de Aguayo. Church services are still held regularly here and in all the missions in this area.
My favorite photo of the missions reflecting the architectural expertise of the artisans who designed and built this structure c.1768. What an incredible feat!
We drove through neighborhoods and backroads to arrive finally at Mission San Francisco de la Espada, the most southern of the mission locations and definitely the most remote. Originally founded as San Francisco de los Tejas, it was the oldest of the East Texas missions and relocated to its present site along the banks of the San Antonio River in 1731. The aqueduct system for directing water from the river to the mission community is still visible. We wandered around a bit, ducking inside the church for a quick look-see and then located the B-cycle station for future reference.
The church at Mission Espada
We backtracked a couple of miles north to Mission San Juan Capistrano. Like Mission Espada, it was originally established as an East Texas mission in 1716 as Mission San José de los Nazonis to service the Nazoni tribe, but it was unsuccessful, so was transplanted to the east bank of the San Antonio River in 1731 and renamed San Juan Capistrano. Franciscan friars’ first mission was to convert the native population to Catholicism, but another primary mission was to teach the natives ‘useful’ trades such as weaving, carpentry, stone-cutting, cattle and sheep raising and farming. In this, they were quite successful.
NPS entrance to Mission San Juan… the mission in the background
Once again, we wandered and explored the grounds, but it was past time for lunch and stomachs were growling. We headed back into the city. We’d save Mission Concepción for tomorrow.
Lunch options were abysmal. Some places had stopped serving and many places, because of no staff, weren’t serving lunch at all. We stopped by the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum, touted to be the ‘oldest saloon in Texas’. According to its brochure, it was “established in 1881 and is where Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders and where Pancho Villa is rumored to have planned the Mexican Revolution.” The museum was open as was the saloon, but the restaurant was closed. We settled for a local ‘Irish’ pub which had no Guiness or Harp on tap and such a limited menu, we were left with a 9” heated, thin, dried-out frozen pizza for $13. It wasn’t very good, but at least it was expensive… ugh!
Not far away, we took a quick tour through the Alamo… a Spanish word, by the way, for cottonwood, the trees that were native and abundant in the area. Tickets were required to monitor the number of visitors within the mission, but admission was free. On the Alamo.org website’s splash page, we read: “A global icon… Stand in awe at the Shrine of Texas Liberty and explore the 1836 battlefield where heroes fell.”
We’d recently listened to a podcast about the ‘myth of the Alamo’ and read an article in Time magazine that dispelled the romanticized, heroic notion about this battle. The victors always write the history.
Mission San Antonio de Valero, more commonly known as the Alamo, an icon of Texas
Enough exploring for one day, we stocked up at Trader Joe’s for an in-room dinner and retreated to our hotel for the evening. Tomorrow, the Mission Trail walk begins. Join us. We’ll provide the Ibuprofen at the end of the day… promise!